Turnbull 'sucking up to Adani'

AUSTRALIAN activist group GetUp has condemned Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull for "spending his time sucking up to a coal mining billionaire who is currently devastating Australian environments while the Great Barrier Reef perishes”.

GetUp environmental justice campaigns director Sam Regester said while Australia was reeling over the news the Great Barrier Reef's health had reached "terminal” condition, Mr Turnbull was in India "kissing the boots of Adani, a coal baron billionaire who wants to build the world's biggest new coal mine”.

"The Great Barrier Reef is dying. And Turnbull is in India sucking up to the very man who is going to make it worse. Worse, he's going to give him a billion dollars to do it,” Mr Regester said.

"Like the corporate sell-out he has become, his idea of protecting the reef is giving a coal billionaire a billion dollars to build a coal mine right on the reef's doorstep.

"It's time Turnbull stops pretending he represents the interest of Australians, not the interests of huge mining corporations. As the rest of Australia works to save the Reef, Turnbull has turned his back.”

Mr Regester said GetUp members in key marginal electorates had been calling and emailing their MPs, telling them to block the "dirty deal”.